


Free At Last

by Ultra



Series: We Used To Be Friends [8]
Category: Veronica Mars (TV)
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Camping, Childhood Memories, Crying, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Friendship, Friendship/Love, Loss of Parent(s), Love, Memories, Understanding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-26
Updated: 2012-09-26
Packaged: 2020-01-31 20:03:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 622
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18598438
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ultra/pseuds/Ultra
Summary: Logan isn't usually the camping type; today is special.





	Free At Last

**Author's Note:**

> originally written for southrnbygrace on LiveJournal as part of a prompt meme, for the prompt 'camping.'

It really didn’t matter that they weren’t dating. She knew what day it was, she couldn’t not, and when Parker called in a panic and Dick had no information, Veronica immediately assured everyone it’d be fine. She knew why he was gone, and she had a few ideas as to where. It wasn’t being a P.I that helped her on this one, it was just knowing him.

Logan was sat on top of a hill, looking out over the town below. There was a tent pitched a little ways behind him, and a fire built and burning, despite the fact the sun had yet to set and the weather was warm. Veronica didn’t question, didn’t ask. She just got out of her car and walked over, sitting down on the grass beside him.

“You had to figure it out,” he said with a hint of his usual smirk.

It wasn’t a question or an accusation, just a statement of fact. Veronica still said nothing, she didn’t need to. She glanced sideways at Logan, elbows on his knees, staring out at the place he had called home since age twelve, beyond it the water that had taken his last hope of a happy family home.

“Y’know, there were times when she was so happy,” he began to explain, and Veronica silently listened, watching the horizon just as he was. “When I was a kid, she had this whole plan about me not becoming some spoilt brat. He never cared one way or the other, but she wanted me to have a real all-American childhood.” He smiled, almost genuinely, at the memory. “We’d find a secluded park, and run around for hours, throwing and catching a ball, or chasing the ducks off the pond. She would laugh until she couldn’t breathe, grab me up in her arms and tell me... tell me I meant the whole world and more. She loved me so much.”

When his voice cracked, Veronica reached out a hand to cover his own, fighting her own tears that she hadn’t expected as he grabbed onto her fingers.

“The first time she said we were going camping, I seriously thought she’d lost her mind.” He laughed painfully then. “My mom under canvas? With the bugs and no running water and everything? She had to have gone crazy... but she loved it.” He sighed, wiping under one eye with the back of his free hand. “She taught me to pitch the tent, build a fire, even catch fish from the river.” He smiled then, comforted by the happy memories nobody could ever take away. “I asked her if she’d been a girl scout, but she said no. Her father, my Grandpa Lester, he taught her everything she knew, and now she wanted me to know. ‘You never know when these skills will come in handy, Logan’,” he quoted, almost choking on the words by now.

Veronica moved in a little closer, let her head drop onto his shoulder.

“It took all these years, but now I have a reason to know this stuff.” He sighed softly, and she was sure she wouldn’t hear if she wasn’t so close. “Now I can do this and... and remember her, just like she was then, when she was so happy and free. Free at last.”

The words he spoke were also engraved on the lighter clutched in his hand, the one he probably lit his fire with. Veronica remembered a conversation on her doorstep two years ago and shivered from more than just the cold of night finally descending.

“Free at last,” she echoed, allowing herself one tear.

The rest belonged to Logan, and she held him tight as they came down like rain.


End file.
